The advent of voice machines connectable to traditional telephony equipment, and, more recently, voicemail services offered by a telephone carrier, have created the ability for asynchronous voice. The ability to communicate asynchronously using voice data provides a viable option to real-time or synchronous, particularly when a callee is difficult to reach. In addition, it is not always desirable to establish voice communication directly with the callee. For example, a caller may desire to leave a voice message with a particular callee, however, establishing a call at that particular instance may not be appropriate because of different time zones, business etiquette, or other reasons to avoid a direct real-time communication with the callee.
Select telephony carriers offer voicemail facilities to their respective subscribers. Some of these voicemail facilities offer the callee the functionality of, while reviewing messages in the callee voicemail box, sending a responsive voicemail to the voice mailbox of the caller. Such communications are implemented from one voicemail box to another, within the inter-carrier network, without actually initiating any communication connection over a PSTN or VOIP network between the parties. Also, such responses are usually limited to parties who subscribe to the same carrier, that is, a callee cannot leave a responsive voicemail through his or her voice mail facility for a caller who's call originated from another carrier's network.
Even with the advent of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology, it is not usually possible to be connected directly to a voice mail facility associated with a particular communication line, without first attempting to establish a real-time voice data call and without the callee being notified of the incoming call. In most instances, a caller does not have the option of being connected directly to a callee's voicemail box or service, especially between different carriers.
Accordingly, a need exists for the ability to establish a connection directly to the voicemail associated with a callee without the callee being notified of the incoming call or without the callee being able to answer the incoming call.
Accordingly, another need exists for the ability to establish a connection directly to the voicemail associated with a callee in a manner that is more efficient than any prior attempted solutions.
A further need exists for the ability to establish a connection directly to the voicemail functionality provided by a telephone carrier that is different from the caller's telephone carrier.
Furthermore, a need exists for ability to establish a connection directly to a callee's voicemail facility that is not carrier sensitive.